BABOK® Guide, Version 2.

0 understand the structure, policies and operations of an

Activity Diagram organization, and recommend solutions that enable the
A model that illustrates the flow of processes and/or organization to achieve its goals.
complex use cases by showing each activity along with
information flows and concurrent activities. Steps can be Business Analysis Approach
superimposed onto horizontal swimlanes for the roles that The set of processes, templates, and activities that will be
perform the steps. used to perform business analysis in a specific context.

Activity Business Analysis Communication Plan

A unit of work performed as part of an initiative or A description of the types of communication the business
process. analyst will perform during business analysis, the
recipients of those communications, and the form in which
Actor(s) communication should occur.
The human and nonhuman roles that interact with the
system. Business Analysis Plan
A description of the planned activities that the business
Allocation analyst will execute in order to perform the business
See requirements allocation. analysis work involved in a specific initiative.

Analyst Business Analyst

A generic name for a role with the responsibilities of A practitioner of business analysis.
developing and managing requirements. Other names
include business analyst, business integrator, requirements
analyst, requirements engineer, and systems analyst.

Association
A link between two elements or objects in a diagram.

Assumption
Assumptions are influencing factors that are believed to be
true but have not been confirmed to be accurate.

Attribute
A data element with a specified data type that describes
information associated with a concept or entity.

Baseline
A point-in-time view of requirements that have been
reviewed and agreed upon to serve as a basis for further
development.

Benchmarking
A comparison of a process or system’s cost, time, quality,
or other metrics to those of leading peer organizations to
identify opportunities for improvement.

Black Box Tests

Tests written without regard to how the software is
implemented. These tests show only what the expected
input and outputs will be.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a team activity that seeks to produce a
broad or diverse set of options through the rapid and
uncritical generation of ideas.

Business Analysis
Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to
work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to
Glossary
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A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
224
Business Architecture
A subset of the enterprise architecture that defines an organization’s current and future state, including its strategy, its
goals and objectives, the internal environment through a process or functional view, the external environment in which the
business operates, and the stakeholders affected by the organization’s activities.

Business Case
An assessment of the costs and benefits associated with a proposed initiative.

Business Constraint(s)
Business constraints are limitations placed on the solution design by the organization that needs the solution. Business
constraints describe limitations on available solutions, or an aspect of the current state that cannot be changed by the
deployment of the new solution. See also technical constraint.

Business Domain
See domain.

Business Domain Model

A conceptual view of all or part of an enterprise focusing on products, deliverables and events that are important to the
mission of the organization. The domain model is useful to validate the solution scope with the business and technical
stakeholders. See also model.

Business Event
A system trigger that is initiated by humans.

Business Goal
A state or condition the business must satisfy to reach its vision.

Business Need(s)
A type of high-level business requirement that is a statement of a business objective, or an impact the solution should have
on its environment.

Business Policy
A business policy is a non-actionable directive that supports a business goal.

Business Process
A set of defined ad-hoc or sequenced collaborative activities performed in a repeatable fashion by an organization.
Processes are triggered by events and may have multiple possible outcomes. A successful outcome of a process will deliver
value to one or more stakeholders.

Business Requirement
A higher level business rationale that, when addressed, will permit the organization to increase revenue, avoid costs,
improve service, or meet regulatory requirements.

Business Requirements Document

A Business Requirements Document is a requirements package that describes business requirements and stakeholder
requirements (it documents requirements of interest to the business, rather than documenting business requirements).

Business Rule(s)
A business rule is a specific, actionable, testable directive that is under the control of the business and supports a business
policy.

Capability
A function of an organization that enables it to achieve a business goal or objective.

Cardinality
The number of occurrences of one entity in a data model that are linked to a second entity. Cardinality is shown on a data
model with a special notation, number (e.g., 1), or letter (e.g., M for many).

Cause and Effect Diagram

See fishbone diagram.

Change Control Board (CCB)

A small group of stakeholders who will make decisions regarding the disposition and treatment of changing requirements.

Change-driven Methodology
A methodology that focuses on rapid delivery of solution capabilities in an incremental fashion and direct involvement of
stakeholders to gather feedback on the solution’s performance.

Checklist Customer
A quality control technique. They may include a standard A stakeholder who uses products or services delivered by
set of quality elements that reviewers use for requirements an organization.
verification and requirements validation or be specifically
developed to capture issues of concern to the project. Data Dictionary
An analysis model describing the data structures and
Class attributes needed by the system.
A descriptor for a set of system objects that share the same
attributes, operations, relationships, and behaviour. A class Data Entity
represents a concept in the system under design. When A group of related information to be stored by the system.
used as an analysis model, a class will generally also Entities can be people, roles, places, things, organizations,
correspond to a real-world entity. occurrences in time, concepts, or documents.

Class Model Data Flow Diagram (DFD)

A type of data model that depicts information groups as An analysis model that illustrates processes that occur,
classes. along with the flows of data to and from those processes.

Code Data Model

A system of programming statements, symbols, and rules An analysis model that depicts the logical structure of data,
used to represent instructions to a computer. independent of the data design or data storage mechanisms.

Commercial-off-the-Shelf Software (COTS) Decision Analysis

Software developed and sold for a particular market. An approach to decision-making that examines and models
the possible consequences of different decisions. Decision
Competitive Analysis analysis assists in making an optimal decision under
A structured process which captures the key characteristics conditions of uncertainty.
of an industry to predict the long-term profitability
prospects and to determine the practices of the most Decision Tables
significant competitors. An analysis model that specifies complex business rules or
logic concisely in an easy-to-read tabular format,
Constraint specifying all of the possible conditions and actions that
A constraint describes any limitations imposed on the need to be accounted for in business rules.
solution that do not support the business or stakeholder
needs. Decision Tree
An analysis model that provides a graphical alternative to
Context Diagram decision tables by illustrating conditions and actions in
An analysis model that illustrates product scope by sequence.
showing the system in its environment with the external
entities (people and systems) that give to and receive from Decomposition
the system. A technique that subdivides a problem into its component
parts in order to facilitate analysis and understanding of
Cost Benefit Analysis those components.
Analysis done to compare and quantify the financial and
non-financial costs of making a change or implementing a A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
solution compared to the benefits gained. Glossary ‍226
Defect
A deficiency in a product or service that reduces its quality or varies from a desired attribute, state, or functionality. See
also requirements defect.

Deliverable
Any unique and verifiable work product or service that a party has agreed to deliver.

Design Constraints
Software requirements that limit the options available to the system designer.

Desired Outcome
The business benefits that will result from meeting the business need and the end state desired by stakeholders.

Developer
Developers are responsible for the construction of software applications. Areas of expertise include development
languages, development practices and application components.

Dialog Hierarchy
An analysis model that shows user interface dialogs arranged as hierarchies.

Dialog Map
An analysis model that illustrates the architecture of the system’s user interface.

Discovery Session
See requirements workshop.

Document Analysis
Document analysis is a means to elicit requirements of an existing system by studying available documentation and
identifying relevant information.

Domain
The problem area undergoing analysis.

Domain Subject Matter Expert (SME)

A person with specific expertise in an area or domain under investigation.

Elicitation
An activity within requirements development that identifies sources for requirements and then uses elicitation techniques
(e.g., interviews, prototypes, facilitated workshops, documentation studies) to gather requirements from those sources.

Elicitation Workshop
See requirements workshop.

End User
A person or system that directly interacts with the solution. End users can be humans who interface with the system, or
systems that send or receive data files to or from the system.

Enterprise
An organizational unit, organization, or collection of organizations that share a set of common goals and collaborate to
provide specific products or services to customers.

Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise architecture is a description of an organization’s business processes, IT software and hardware, people,
operations and projects, and the relationships between them.

Entity-Relationship Diagram
An entity-relationship diagram is a graphical representation of the entities relevant to a chosen problem domain, the
relationships between them, and their attributes.

Evaluation
The systematic and objective assessment of a solution to determine its status and efficacy in meeting objectives over time,
and to identify ways to improve the solution to better meet objectives. See also metric, indicator and monitoring.

Event
An event is something that occurs to which an organizational unit, system, or process must respond.

Event Response Table

An analysis model in table format that defines the events (i.e., the input stimuli that trigger the system to carry out some
function) and their responses.

Evolutionary Prototype Gap Analysis

A prototype that is continuously modified and updated in A comparison of the current state and desired future state
response to feedback from users. of an organization in order to identify differences that need
to be addressed.
Exploratory Prototype
A prototype developed to explore or verify requirements. Glossary
A list and definition of the business terms and concepts
External Interfaces relevant to the solution being built or enhanced.
Interfaces with other systems (hardware, software, and
human) that a proposed system will interact with. Goal
See business goal.
Feasibility Analysis
See feasibility study. Horizontal Prototype
A prototype that shows a shallow, and possibly wide, view
Feasibility Study of the system’s functionality, but which does not generally
An evaluation of proposed alternatives to determine if they support any actual use or interaction.
are technically possible within the constraints of the
organization and whether they will deliver the desired Impact Analysis
benefits to the organization. An impact analysis assesses the effects that a proposed
change will have on a stakeholder or stakeholder group,
Feature project, or system.
A cohesive bundle of externally visible functionality that
should align with business goals and objectives. Each Implementation Subject Matter Expert (SME)
feature is a logically related grouping of functional A stakeholder who will be responsible for designing,
requirements or non-functional requirements described in developing, and implementing the change described in the
broad strokes. requirements and have specialized knowledge regarding
the construction of one or more solution components.
Fishbone Diagram
A diagramming technique used in root cause analysis to Included Use Cases
identify underlying causes of an observed problem, and the A use case composed of a common set of steps used by
relationships that exist between those causes. multiple use cases.

Focus Group Incremental Delivery

A focus group is a means to elicit ideas and attitudes about Creating working software in multiple releases so the entire
a specific product, service or opportunity in an interactive product is delivered in portions over time.
group environment. The participants share their
impressions, preferences and needs, guided by a moderator. Indicator
An indicator identifies a specific numerical measurement
Force Field Analysis that indicates progress toward achieving an impact, output,
A graphical method for depicting the forces that support activity or input. See also metric.
and oppose a change. Involves identifying the forces,
depicting them on opposite sides of a line (supporting and A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
opposing forces) and then estimating the strength of each Glossary ‍228
set of forces.

Functional Requirement(s)
The product capabilities, or things the product must do for
its users.
Initiative
Any effort undertaken with a defined goal or objective.

Inspection
A formal type of peer review that utilizes a predefined and documented process, specific participant roles, and the capture
of defect and process metrics. See also structured walkthrough.

Interface
A shared boundary between any two persons and/or systems through which information is communicated.

Interoperability
Ability of systems to communicate by exchanging data or services.

Interview
A systematic approach to elicit information from a person or group of people in an informal or for mal setting by asking
relevant questions and documenting the responses.

Iteration
A process in which a deliverable (or the solution overall) is progressively elaborated upon. Each iteration is a self-
contained “mini-project” in which a set of activities are undertaken, resulting in the development of a subset of project
deliverables. For each iteration, the team plans its work, does the work, and checks it for quality and complete ness.
(Iterations can occur within other iterations as well. For example, an iteration of requirements development would include
elicitation, analysis, specification, and validation activities.)

Knowledge Area
A group of related tasks that support a key function of business analysis.

Lessons Learned Process

A process improvement technique used to learn about and improve on a process or project. A lessons learned session
involves a special meeting in which the team explores what worked, what didn’t work, what could be learned from the
just-completed iteration, and how to adapt processes and techniques before continuing or starting anew.

Metadata
Metadata is information that is used to understand the context and validity of information recorded in a system.

Methodology
A set of processes, rules, templates, and working methods that prescribe how business analysis, solution development and
implementation is performed in a particular context.

Metric
A metric is a quantifiable level of an indicator that an organization wants to accomplish at a specific point in time.

Model(s)
A representation and simplification of reality developed to convey information to a specific audience to support analysis,
communication and understanding.

Monitoring
Monitoring is a continuous process of collecting data to determine how well a solution is implemented compared to
expected results. See also metric and indicator.

Need(s)
See business need.

Non-functional Requirement(s)
The quality attributes, design and implementation constraints, and external interfaces that the product must have.

Objective
A target or metric that a person or organization seeks to meet in order to progress towards a goal.

Object Oriented Modelling

An approach to software engineering where software is comprised of components that are encapsulated groups of data and
functions which can inherit behaviour and attributes from other components; and whose components communicate via
messages with one another. In some organizations, the same approach is used for business engineering to describe and
package the logical components of the business.

Observation An assessment that describes whether stakeholders are

Observation is a means to elicit requirements by prepared to accept the change associated with a solution
conducting an assessment of the stakeholder’s work and are able to use it effectively.
environment.
Organizational Unit
Operational Support Any recognized association of people in the context of an
A stakeholder who helps to keep the solution functioning, organization or enterprise.
either by providing support to end users (trainers, help
desk) or by keeping the solution operational on a day-to- Peer Review
day basis (network and other tech support). A validation technique in which a small group of
stakeholders evaluates a portion of a work product to find
Operative Rule(s) errors to improve its quality.
The business rules an organization chooses to enforce as a
matter of policy. They are intended to guide the actions of Plan-driven Methodology
people working within the business. They may oblige Any methodology that emphasizes planning and formal
people to take certain actions, prevent people from taking documentation of the processes used to accomplish a
actions, or prescribe the conditions under which an action project and of the results of the project. Plan-driven
may be taken. methodologies emphasize the reduction of risk and control
over outcomes over the rapid delivery of a solution.
Opportunity Analysis
The process of examining new business opportunities to Prioritization
improve organizational performance. The process of determining the relative importance of a set
of items in order to determine the order in which they will
Optionality be addressed.
Defining whether or not a relationship between entities in a
data model is mandatory. Optionality is shown on a data Problem Statement
model with a special notation. A brief statement or paragraph that describes the problems
in the current state and clarifies what a successful solution
Organization will look like.
An autonomous unit within an enterprise under the
management of a single individual or board, with a clearly Process
defined boundary that works towards common goals and See business process.
objectives. Organizations operate on a continuous basis, as
opposed to an organizational unit or project team, which Process Map
may be disbanded once its objectives are achieved. A business model that shows a business process in terms of
the steps and input and output flows across multiple
Organization Modelling functions, organizations, or job roles.
The analysis technique used to describe roles, re-
sponsibilities and reporting structures that exist within an Process Model
organization. A visual model or representation of the sequential flow and
control logic of a set of related activities or actions.
Organizational Process Asset
All materials used by groups within an organization to Product
define, tailor, implement, and maintain their processes. A solution or component of a solution that is the result of a
project.
Organizational Readiness Assessment
A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
Glossary ‍230
Product Backlog See survey.
A set of user stories, requirements or features that have
been identified as candidates for potential implementation, Regulator
prioritized, and estimated. A stakeholder with legal or governance authority over the
solution or the process used to develop it.
Product Scope
The features and functions that characterize a product, Relationship
service or result. A defined association between concepts, classes or entities.
Relationships are usually named and include the
Project cardinality of the association.
A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique
product, service or result. Relationship Map
A business model that shows the organizational context in
Project Charter terms of the relationships that exist among the
A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that organization, external customers, and providers.
formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides
the project manager with the authority to apply Repository
organizational resources to project activities. A real or virtual facility where all information on a specific
topic is stored and is available for retrieval.
Project Manager
The stakeholder assigned by the performing organization to Request For Information (RFI)
manage the work required to achieve the project objectives. A requirements document issued to solicit vendor input on
a proposed process or product. An RFI is used when the
Project Scope issuing organization seeks to compare different alternatives
The work that must be performed to deliver a product, or is uncertain regarding the available options
service, or result with the specified features and functions.
See also scope. Request For Proposal (RFP)
A requirements document issued when an organization is
Prototype seeking a formal proposal from vendors. An RFP typically
A partial or preliminary version of the system. requires that the proposals be submitted following a
specific process and using sealed bids which will be
Quality evaluated against a formal evaluation methodology.
The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils
requirements. Request For Quote (RFQ)
An informal solicitation of proposals from vendors.
Quality Assurance
Activities performed to ensure that a process will deliver Requirement
products that meet an appropriate level of quality. A condition or capability needed by a 1. stakeholder to
solve a problem or achieve an objective.
Quality Attributes
The subset of non-functional requirements that describes A condition or 2. capability that must be met of
properties of the software’s operation, development, and possessed by a solution or solution component to
deployment (e.g., performance, security, usability, satisfy a contract, standard, specification or other
portability, and testability). formally imposed documents.

Questionnaire ‍231
A documented representation of a condition or 3. capability An analysis of requirements-related risks that ranks risks
as in 1) or 2). and identifies actions to avoid or minimize those risks.

Requirement(s) Attribute Requirements Signoff

Metadata related to a requirement used to assist with Formal approval of a set of requirements by a sponsor or
requirements development and management. other decision maker.

Requirement(s) Defect Requirements Trace Matrix

An error in requirements caused by incorrect, incomplete, A matrix used to track requirements’ relationships. Each
missing, or conflicting requirements. column in the matrix provides requirements information
and associated project or software development
Requirements Allocation components.
The process of apportioning requirements to subsystems
and components (i.e., people, hardware, and software). Requirements Traceability
The ability to identify and document the lineage of each
Requirements Discovery Session requirement, including its derivation (backward
See requirements workshop. traceability), its allocation (forward traceability), and its
relationship to other requirements.
Requirements Document
See requirements package. Requirements Validation
The work done to ensure that the stated requirements
Requirements Iteration support and are aligned with the goals and objectives of the
An iteration that defines requirements for a subset of the business.
solution scope. For example, an iteration of requirements
would include identifying a part of the overall product Requirements Verification
scope to focus upon, identifying requirements sources for The work done to evaluate requirements to ensure they are
that portion of the product, analysing stakeholders and defined correctly and are at an acceptable level of quality.
planning how to elicit requirements from them, conducting It ensures the requirements are sufficiently defined and
elicitation techniques, documenting the requirements, and structured so that the solution development team can use
validating the requirements. them in the design, development and implementation of the
solution.
Requirements Management
The activities that control requirements development, A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
including requirements change control, requirements Glossary ‍232
attributes definition, and requirements traceability.

Requirements Management Plan

A description of the requirements management process.

Requirements Management Tool

A software tool that stores requirements information in a
database, captures requirements attributes and associations,
and facilitates requirements reporting.

Requirements Model
A representation of requirements using text and diagrams.
Requirements models can also be called user requirements
models or analysis models and can supplement textual
requirements specifications.

Requirements Package
A requirements package is a set of requirements grouped
together in a document or presentation for communication
to stakeholders.

Requirements Quality
See requirements validation and requirements verification.

Requirements Risk Mitigation Strategy

Requirements Workshop
A requirements workshop is a structured meeting in which a carefully selected group of stakeholders collaborate to define
and or refine requirements under the guidance of a skilled neutral facilitator.

Retrospective
See lessons learned process.

Return on Investment
A measure of the profitability of a project or investment.

Risk
An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, will affect the goals or objectives of a proposed change.

Risk Mitigation Strategy

See requirements risk mitigation strategy.

Root Cause Analysis

Root cause analysis is a structured examination of an identified problem to understand the underlying causes.

Scenario
An analysis model that describes a series of actions or tasks that respond to an event. Each scenario is an instance of a use
case.

Scope
The area covered by a particular activity or topic of interest. See also project scope and solution scope.

Scope Model
A model that defines the boundaries of a business domain or solution.

Secondary Actor
An actor who participates in but does not initiate a use case.

Sequence Diagram
A type of diagram that shows objects participating in interactions and the messages exchanged between them.

Service
Work carried out or on behalf of others.

Software Engineer
See developer.

Software/Systems Requirements Specification

A requirements document written primarily for Implementation SMEs describing functional and non-functional
requirements.

Solution
A solution meets a business need by resolving a problem or allowing an organization to take advantage of an opportunity.

Solution Requirement
A characteristic of a solution that meets the business and stakeholder requirements. May be subdivided into functional and
non-functional requirements.

Solution Scope
The set of capabilities a solution must deliver in order to meet the business need. See also scope.

Span of Control
Span of control is the number of employees a manger is directly (or indirectly) responsible for.

Sponsor
A stakeholder who authorizes or legitimizes the product development effort by contracting for or paying for the project.
Stakeholder
A group or person who has interests that may be affected by an initiative or influence over it.

Stakeholder Analysis
The work to identify the stakeholders who may be impacted by a proposed initiative and assess their interests and likely
participation.

Stakeholder List, Roles, and Responsibility Designation

A listing of the stakeholders affected by a business need or proposed solution and a description of their participation in a
project or other initiative.

Stakeholder Requirement Survey

Stakeholder requirements are statements of the needs of a A survey administers a set of written questions to
particular stakeholder or class of stakeholders. They stakeholders in order to collect responses from a large
describe the needs that a given stakeholder has and how group in a relatively short period of time.
that stakeholder will interact with a solution. Stakeholder
requirements serve as a bridge between business Swimlane
requirements and the various categories of solution The horizontal or vertical section of a process model that
requirements. show which activities are performed by a particular actor or
role.
State Diagram
An analysis model showing the life cycle of a data entity or SWOT Analysis
class. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats. It is a model used to understand
State Machine Diagram influencing factors and how they may affect an initiative.
See state diagram.
System
State Transition Diagram A collection of interrelated elements that interact to
See state diagram. achieve an objective. System elements can include
hardware, software, and people. One system can be a sub-
Stated Requirements element (or subsystem) of another system.
A requirement articulated by a stakeholder that has not
been analysed, verified, or validated. Stated requirements Technical Constraint(s)
frequently reflect the desires of a stakeholder rather than Technical constraints are limitations on the design of a
the actual need. solution that derive from the technology used in its
implementation. See also business constraint.
Structural Rule
Structural rules determine when something is or is not true Technique
or when things fall into a certain category. They describe Techniques alter the way a business analysis task is
categorizations that may change over time. performed or describe a specific form the output of a task
may take.
Storyboard
See dialog hierarchy and dialog map. Temporal Event
A system trigger that is initiated by time.
Structured Walkthrough
A structured walkthrough is an organized peer review of a Tester
deliverable with the objective of finding errors and A stakeholder responsible for assessing the quality of, and
omissions. It is considered a form of quality assurance. identifying defects in, a software application.

Subject Matter Expert (SME) Throw-away Prototype

A stakeholder with specific expertise in an aspect of the A prototype used to quickly uncover and clarify interface
problem domain or potential solution alternatives or requirements using simple tools, sometimes just paper and
components. pencil. Usually discarded when the final system has been
developed.
Supplier
A stakeholder who provides products or services to an A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
organization. Glossary ‍234
Timebox Validation ensures that you built the correct solution. Also
A fixed period of time to accomplish a desired outcome. see requirements validation.

Traceability Variance Analysis

See requirements traceability. Analysis of discrepancies between planned and actual
performance, to determine the magnitude of those
Transition Requirement(s) discrepancies and recommend corrective and preventative
A classification of requirements that describe capabilities action as required.
that the solution must have in order to facilitate transition
from the current state of the enterprise to the desired future Verification
state, but that will not be needed once that transition is The process of checking that a deliverable produced at a
complete. given stage of development satisfies the conditions or
specifications of the previous stage. Verification ensures
Unified Modelling Language (UML) that you built the solution correctly. Also see requirements
A non-proprietary modelling and specification language verification.
used to specify, visualize, and document deliverables for
object-oriented software-intensive systems. Verified Requirements
Requirements that have been shown to demonstrate the
Use Case characteristics of requirements quality and as such are
An analysis model that describes the tasks that the system cohesive, complete, consistent, correct, feasible,
will perform for actors and the goals that the system modifiable, unambiguous, and testable.
achieves for those actors along the way.
Vertical Prototype
Use Case Diagram A prototype that dives into the details of the interface,
A type of diagram defined by UML that captures all actors functionality, or both.
and use cases involved with a system or product.
Vision Statement (product vision statement)
User A brief statement or paragraph that describes the why,
A stakeholder, person, device, or system that directly or what, and who of the desired software product from a
indirectly accesses a system. business point of view.

User Acceptance Test ‍235

Test cases that users employ to judge whether the delivered
system is acceptable. Each acceptance test describes a set
of system inputs and expected results.

User Requirement
See stakeholder requirement(s).

User Requirements Document

A requirements document written for a user audience,
describing user requirements and the impact of the
anticipated changes on the users.

User Story
A high-level, informal, short description of a solution
capability that provides value to a stakeholder. A user story
is typically one or two sentences long and provides the
minimum information necessary to allow a developer to
estimate the work required to implement it.

Validated Requirements
Requirements that have been demonstrated to deliver
business value and to support the business goals and
objectives.

Validation
The process of checking a product to ensure that it satisfies
its intended use and conforms to its requirements.
Walkthrough
A type of peer review in which participants present, discuss, and step through a work product to find
errors. Walkthroughs of requirements documentation are used to verify the correctness of re-
quirements. See also structured walkthrough.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to
accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. It organizes and defines the
total scope of the project.

Work Product
A document or collection of notes or diagrams used by the business analyst during the requirements
development process.